Flutterby™! : Eroding the 4th Amendment with NDAs

District Court of Appeal of Florida,First District. James L. THOMAS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. No. 1D11–6156. -- November 20, 2013:

They did not want to obtain a search warrant because they did not want to reveal information about the technology they used to track the cell phone signal. “[T]he Tallahassee Police Department is not the owner of the equipment.” The prosecutor told the court that a law enforcement officer “would tell you that there is a nondisclosure agreement that they've agreed with the company.” An investigator with the technical operations unit of the Tallahassee Police Department testified: “[W]e prefer that alternate legal methods be used, so that we do not have to rely upon the equipment to establish probable cause, just for not wanting to reveal the nature and methods.” He also testified: “We have not obtained a search warrant [in any case], based solely on the equipment.”

Via a tweet from Declan McCullagh ‏@declanm, by way of Wired: Florida Cops’ Secret Weapon: Warrantless Cellphone Tracking, which goes deeper.

Disturbing.